HELEN ELIZABETH HENNESSY
(nee Brooking.)
1958 -
By Judy Ferguson
Helen was born in Bangor, North Wales on 29th October 1958 to Kay Brooking (nee Allen) and Kenneth William Brooking. Both her parents had been in the services during the Second World War. Her father was a Chief Petty Officer (radio and communications) in the Navy and her mother in the Women’s Air Force for 5 years at Bletchley House (decoding and staff training).
Her parents married in 1950 after they were demobbed and her mother did a teacher training course.
Helen has two younger brothers – Paul Gareth and Mark Llewelyn both born in Bangor too.
One of Helen’s earliest memories is walking round a wooded golf course near Harlech and picking blackberries. She thinks she was about 4 then.
When she was 5 years old the family emigrated to Australia sailing on the S.S. Iberia on 21st March 1964 from Tilbury. The journey took them via the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Middle East, India, Perth and finally Adelaide.
In the U.K. her father had been able to arrange radio communications work for his arrival, at the Woomera Rocket Range on a deep space tracking station at Island Lagoon.
The family arrived at Outer Harbour at the beginning of May 1964 and spent their first 2 weeks in Australia in a Government private hotel in North Adelaide before moving up to Woomera.
Helen was enrolled at Woomera Primary School and her mother was offered a teaching job. Helen and both her brothers went to the Woomera Primary School and High School. These schools were eventually amalgamated into an Area school in 1977.
At the time of their arrival, Woomera was a town of 5,000 People. When Helen got to high school there was an influx of Americans and the departure of many of the European families who had lived there. The population was stable in numbers but its make up changed.
Both Helen’s parents were heavily involved in the Woomera Community – in amateur dramatics and Christmas pantomimes which Helen attended.
Almost all the workforce in Woomera were government employees and everything was ‘laid on’- 2 pools. Cinema, shopping centres – it was like a wealthy suburb in the desert!
Now as an adult, she believes it was a very ‘closed’ society and women who didn’t work were often socially isolated leading sometimes to family breakdown.
Helen had excellent teachers at school especially in Years 3, 6 and 7. These teachers encouraged the students to be independent thinkers and learners, to manage their study time and to take on new and exciting things. On one occasion they made their own musical instruments and formed a class ‘band’.
In Grade 6 Helen was picked for the lead in a school play - a queen – but due to sickness ended up in the isolation ward at Woomera Hospital for 2 weeks.
In Grade 7 their teacher encouraged ‘independent study’- to work at their own pace with plenty of extension work for motivated students. Helen was such a one and an avid reader.
By the age of 11 she had joined the Woomera Public Library and devoured – Jean Plaidy, Neville Shute, Enid Blyton and many others. Her parents brought her books home and also subscribed to the Readers’ Digest classics series. One of her favourites was ‘Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
Helen also loved listening to the radio as a child and was a member of the ABC Children’s program, ‘The Argonauts.’ She had a radio in her bedroom and would listen to the plays on Sunday nights, the ‘Goon Show’ and ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’. Her mother was a correspondent for the Regional ABC and her dad was a keen sportsman. Helen thinks both her parents influenced her equally with a love of reading and a high regard for education.
Her parents were divorced in 1973. Helen was 14 at this time and her brothers 12 and 10. Her dad bought a beach house between Port Augusta and Whyalla and this was a real boon. Helen has many happy memories of going there every other weekend and taking friends. The shack had no power and only rainwater. Her dad taught them many navy and other skills – boating, fishing, water skiing, home maintenance, lighting lanterns and using a kerosene fridge. They saw what life was like without ‘mod cons’ and they had TV for only 2 hours a day! All their power came from a generator and there were plenty of rats and mice!
Most of her teen years’ social life was round the local pool.
After she completed her schooling in Woomera Helen left to come down to Adelaide in 1975 and attended the Institute of Technology, living first at St Anne’s residential college, later in a shared house in Croydon and in her 3rd year a shared flat. Choosing an area of study was difficult but Helen decided to study Librarianship.
It was while at the Institute that she met fellow student Shane Hennessy who was studying Metallurgy. Shane had commenced work while Helen undertook a Diploma in Teaching. She was able to do this with the assistance of a Tertiary allowance, financial assistance from her parents and doing holiday jobs.
She finished her course in 1979 and she (aged 21) and Shane (23) were married on the 18th January 1980 at the Sacred Heart College chapel which was Shane’s old school. Shane had won a graduate position as a trainee metallurgist with an iron ore mining company, Hamersley Iron, in Western Australia at Karratha.
During his time there the company changed to a computerized system and Shane was able to undertake a more research/systems based role. At Karratha they lived in a company owned flat and Helen was able to pick up work at the Child Care Centre and as night manager at the sporting centre. She later got a contract for Library work for the Company.
The couple then moved inland to Tom Price, where Shane continued working for Hamersley Iron with Helen working for the Shire of West Pilbara (now called the Shire of Ashburton). Helen was the Library Manager for the Shire which is about half the size of Victoria. The area was very similar to the Woomera landscape and Helen flew from place to place in the course of her work. As part of this role she opened a branch library at Wittenoom (where asbestos was mined)..In the Western Australian library system books circulated from library to library but not Wittenoom because of the asbestos dust issues.
They left Tom Price in 1982 and went to Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory where they stayed for 3 years - 2 of which Helen taught there. She then went to work for Gemco, a subsidiary of BHP in their management records office. This involved her taking documents to Brisbane to get them microfilmed.
They came back to South Australia in 1982/3 for a holiday after 2 years away and found a property at Willaston. They had been staying with friends in Tanunda and drove to Gawler and looked in a Real Estate window and bought the Willaston place in 1983 as a future home. They then flew back to Groote Eylandt.
In 1985 Helen and Shane came back to Gawler and moved into the Willaston house. Helen began working for the Munno Para Library and Shane got a job as a public servant with the Police Department.
Within 3 months, in July 1985, Helen moved to the Gawler Library. She led the establishment of the library based on what was bequeathed by Hilda Heidrich’s library and the new library opened in mid October of that year. This time is one of Helen’s best memories as the library became a cultural hub for Gawler with authors, illustrators and poets all coming to public events at the library and it became a meeting place for writing workshops and networking.
On 25th January 1990 their first daughter Caitlin Anne was born at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Adelaide. Helen took 12 months maternity leave followed by a further 12 months taken by Shane who by then was working for Family and Community Services (FACS).
Then, on 1st February 1992, tragedy struck when baby Alice Eloise was stillborn at 33 weeks. Helen decided to take a year off and became pregnant again with her 3rd child Meredith Lee who was born on 9th January 1993.
1992 was, understandably, a very stressful year and Helen decided to resign and stay at home which she did for the next 5 years but with her mother’s support was able to do the odd casual library work at various places – including the UniSA Levels campus library - and lecturing at TAFE. Helen was able to keep her computer skills levels up – the internet was just appearing and she was able to learn about it at this time.
When Meredith started school in 1998 at Gawler Primary School, Helen won a librarian position at the State Library in their training and promotion department, training both staff and members of the public. She did this for 6 months as a full time job and then won the position of Special Librarian in the Dept. of Premier and Cabinet.
She held this post for 7 years and was seconded during this time as a Human Resources consultant within the same department.
Helen wanted to get back into the public library system and so returned to the State Library’s Public Library Services where she worked as Technical Services Manager providing public library services to all the libraries across the state.
In 2005 she returned to the Gawler Library as Manager. This was during the time of Neil Jacobs who as the Council CEO was leading the Council through some major changes. Helen was pleased to be back after a gap of 13 years.
Five years later much has been achieved in both Helen’s professional career and personally Shane and Helen now find themselves empty nesters. Both of their daughters are undertaking university studies and working. Both girls have travelled independently overseas.
Both Helen’s parents live in Gawler and so the town has become home for three generations.
Helen has been actively involved in a number of community organisations as a founding member of the Gawler Quilting Circle; a member of the management committee of the Elsie Ey Kindergarten; member and then Chairperson of the Gawler Primary School; member of the Board of the Xavier College and she is currently a member of the Gawler Agricultural, Horticultural and Floricultural Show Society.
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